The report analyzes the compliance of Metcash with AASB Conceptual Framework for financial reporting. It covers objectives, recognition criteria, and qualitative characteristics of financial reporting. The report provides recommendations for other Australian companies to comply with AASB Conceptual Framework.
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Running head: CONTEMPORARY ISSUES IN ACCOUNTING Contemporary Issues in Accounting Name of the Student Name of the University Author’s Note
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1CONTEMPORARY ISSUES IN ACCOUNTING Executive Summary The report is about the analysis of various aspects of AASB Conceptual Framework in respect of Metcash. It can be seen from the analysis that Metcash has complied with all the required regulations and guidelines of AASB Conceptual Framework for developing their financial statements as the aim of the company is to provide the investors with all their needed information for assessing the financial standings of the company.
2CONTEMPORARY ISSUES IN ACCOUNTING Table of Contents Introduction......................................................................................................................................3 General Purpose Financial Reporting Objectives............................................................................3 Recognition Criteria.........................................................................................................................6 Qualitative Characteristics of Financial Reporting........................................................................10 Conclusion and Recommendations................................................................................................11 References......................................................................................................................................12
3CONTEMPORARY ISSUES IN ACCOUNTING Introduction This report takes an honest attempt for the analysis and evaluation of the compliance of one of the Australian companies with different aspects of accounting conceptual framework. For the purpose of this report,Metcash, an Australian company is taken into consideration. Metcash is regarded as a major Australian company involves in the distribution and marketing of different products like groceries, alcoholic beverages, hardware, fresh produced products and various other consumer products (metcash.com, 2018). There are three major parts in this report. The first part involves in the analysis of the objectives of conceptual framework related to Metcash. The second part involves in analyzing the recognition criteria provided by the conceptual framework of different financial aspects. After that, the last part involves in the analysis of the qualititative characteristics of financial reporting for the companies. A conclusion along with recommendation is provided in the last part based on the whole study. General Purpose Financial Reporting Objectives In Australia, the Australian Accounting Standard Board (AASB) has published the required Conceptual Framework for the Australian companies and they are obliged to follow the guiding principles of this conceptual framework. The AASB conceptual framework has certain objectives that Metcash should follow in their financial reporting and they are discussed below: Objective 1:It is needed for the companies to publish every information that helps the investors and other users in understanding the present financial position and standings of them. For this reason, the entities must provide all the information about their financial resources like assets, liabilities and others (aasb.gov.au, 2018). According to the 2017 Annual Report of Metcash, it is
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4CONTEMPORARY ISSUES IN ACCOUNTING evident that the entity has responsibly published their Statement of Financial Position and this statement contains all the information related to the economic resources of the entity that is majorly helpful for the investors and other users in understanding their financial standing. It is shown below: (Source: mars-metcdn-com.global.ssl.fastly.net, 2018)
5CONTEMPORARY ISSUES IN ACCOUNTING Objective 2:According to the AASB Conceptual Framework, the companies are responsible to release all the required information that is largely helpful for the investors and other users to ascertain the financial performance of them. This aspect imposes the responsibility on the companies to provide all the information related to revenue, income, exposes and profit of the businesses (aasb.gov.au, 2018). It is visible in the 2018 Annual Report of Metcash that the business entity has released all the information related to their financial performance with the help of the Statement of Comprehensive Income and it is shown below: (Source: mars-metcdn-com.global.ssl.fastly.net, 2018) Objective 3:The AASB Conceptual Framework put the obligation on the business entities of Australia that they are needed to show the change in their financial performance as well as cash position in their financial reports (aasb.gov.au, 2018). It can be seen in the 2018 Annual Report
6CONTEMPORARY ISSUES IN ACCOUNTING of Metcash that the company has released the needed information for judging the change in financial performance through Statement of Change in Equity and Statement of Cash Flows; they are shown below: (Source: mars-metcdn-com.global.ssl.fastly.net, 2018) From the above discussion, one aspect is clear that Metcash has released all the information for their investors and other users of the financial statements for ascertaining the financialposition, financialperformance and change in financial performanceas per the conceptual framework objectives. Recognition Criteria It is needed for the companies to do proper recognition of some of the major financial aspects of their business and they are asset, liability, equity, revenue and expense. AASB conceptual framework has certain criteria that Metcash is needed to consider while doing recognizing these financial aspects and they are shown below:
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7CONTEMPORARY ISSUES IN ACCOUNTING Asset:According to AASB Conceptual Framework, it is needed for Metcash to follow the regulationsofAASB116Property,PlantandEquipmentundersection334ofthe Corporations Act 2001for the recognition of their property, plant and equipment (PPE) (aasb.gov.au, 2018). Metcash recognizes their PPE in the statement of financial position at cost value less accumulated depreciation and impairment losses; and straight-line method issued for depreciation. In Metcash, the recognition of inventories is done by followingAASB 102 Inventoriesand they are recorded in lower of cost or net realizable value (aasb.gov.au, 2018). These can be shown below: (Source: mars-metcdn-com.global.ssl.fastly.net, 2018) Moreover, according to AASB Conceptual Framework, Metcash is needed to comply with the guiding principles ofAASB 138 Intangible Assetsfor the recognition of the intangible assets of their business (aasb.gov.au, 2018). Metcash measures their business intangible assets in cost value, Liability:According to the Conceptual Framework of AASB, Metcash has the requirement to comply with the guiding principles ofAASB 132 Presentation of Financial Instrumentsfor
8CONTEMPORARY ISSUES IN ACCOUNTING recognizing their interest-bearing borrowings. The 2018 Annual Report of Metcash shows that the company recognizes their long-term borrowings in fair value basis. For the recognition of the lease liabilities, Metcash is needed to follow the principles ofAASB 16 Leases(aasb.gov.au, 2018). It requires telling that Metcash recognizes their leases at the time of their occurrence. For the recognitionof previsions, the obligation on Metcash is to follow the principlesand regulationsofAASB137Provisions,ContingentLiabilitiesandContingentAssets (aasb.gov.au, 2018). Metcash recognizes their provisions at the present of any current obligation due to any past event. These can be seen in below: (Source: mars-metcdn-com.global.ssl.fastly.net, 2018) Equity:According to the Conceptual Framework of AASB, it is required for the Australian companies including Metcash to follow the regulations ofAASB 132 Financial Instruments: Presentationto recognize equities (aasb.gov.au, 2018). The 2018 Annual Report of Metcash shows that the company considers fully paid ordinary shares as equity and it can be shown below:
9CONTEMPORARY ISSUES IN ACCOUNTING (Source: mars-metcdn-com.global.ssl.fastly.net, 2018) Revenue:According to the Conceptual Framework of AASB, the requirement for Metcash is to make compliance with the principles ofAASB 118 Revenuesto recognize the business revenues (aasb.gov.au, 2018). Metcash recognizes their revenues from different sources at the time to the inflow of future economic benefits in the favor of the company. It can be seen below: (Source: mars-metcdn-com.global.ssl.fastly.net, 2018) Expense:According to AASB Conceptual Framework, the obligation on Metcash to recognize their revenue at the presence of the probability that there will be outflow of the future economic benefits against the company. The major business expenses for Metcash are operating lease expenses, employee benefit expenses, depreciation and amortization, finance costs and others. Hence, it can be observed from the above discussion Metcash recognizes the major financial aspects of their business as per the Conceptual Framework of AASB.
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10CONTEMPORARY ISSUES IN ACCOUNTING Qualitative Characteristics of Financial Reporting Financial information of the businesses becomes more purposeful and useful when they include the fundamental and enhancing characteristics of financial information. They are shown below: Fundamental Qualitative Characteristics:According to the Conceptual Framework of AASB, Relevance and Faithful Representation are the fundamental qualitative characteristics of financial reporting. In order to make all the financial statements relevant, Metcash has released all the financial information for the year 2017 and 2018 and the investors can gain all the required financial information from their financial statements for investment decision-making (Barth, 2013). Moreover, for ensuring the faithful representation of the financial statements, Metcash has made compliance with all the guiding principles of Corporations Act 2001, AASB, International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) and International Accounting Standards Board (IASB). This is a crucial step for ensuring the true and fair presentation of the financial statements (Barth, 2013). Enhancing Qualitative Characteristics:These characteristics help in enhancing the usefulness ofthefinancialinformation;andtheyareComparability,Verifiability,Timelinessand Understandability. It can be observed from the 2017 Annual Report of Metcash that the company has provide the financial information of both 2017 and 2018 so that the users can compare the financial information (Henderson, et al. 2015). Moreover, the users can also compare the information with the other companies. Apart from this, the users of the financial statements of Metcash can verify the used assumptions and accounting estimates from the notes to the financial statements of Metcash. Thus, the presence of verifiability can be seen. For the aim to maintain timeliness, Metcash publishes their quarterly, half-yearly as well as annual financial report for
11CONTEMPORARY ISSUES IN ACCOUNTING ensuring the accessibility of the information by the users while needed. Lastly, all the required classification, justification and explanation of different financial aspects can be seen in the noted to the financial statements in the 2018 Annual report so that the users can gain required understanding (Barth, 2013). Conclusion and Recommendations It is evident from the above discussion that the management of Metcash has taken into consideration all the objectives of AASB Conceptual Fretwork while preparing their financial statements. Moreover, full compliance with the recognition criteria of AASB is evident from the side of Metcash for measuring asset, liability and others. Lastly, it can also be seen that the financialinformationofMetcashincludesboththefundamentalaswellasenhancing characteristicsof financialinformationthatis helpingMetcash in makingtheir financial information more purposeful for their users. As per the above analysis, it can be recommended to other Australian companies that they are needed to make compliance with all the guiding principles of AASB Conceptual Framework so that they can avoid major issues in accounting.
12CONTEMPORARY ISSUES IN ACCOUNTING References Aasb.gov.au. 2018.Conceptual Framework For Financial Reporting. [online] Available at: <http://www.aasb.gov.au/admin/file/content105/c9/ACCED264_06-15.pdf>[Accessed11 August 2018]. Aasb.gov.au.2018.FinancialInstruments:Presentation.[online]Availableat: <http://www.aasb.gov.au/admin/file/content105/c9/AASB132_07-04_COMPoct09_02-10.pdf> [Accessed 11 August 2018]. Aasb.gov.au.2018.Inventories.[online]Availableat: <http://www.aasb.gov.au/admin/file/content105/c9/AASB102_07-04_COMPjun09_01-09.pdf> [Accessed 11 August 2018]. Aasb.gov.au.2018.Leases.[online]Availableat: <http://www.aasb.gov.au/admin/file/content105/c9/AASB16_AmendStd_02-16.pdf>[Accessed 11 August 2018]. Aasb.gov.au.2018.Property,PlantAndEquipment.[online]Availableat: <http://www.aasb.gov.au/admin/file/content105/c9/AASB116_08-15_COMPoct15_01-18.pdf> [Accessed 11 August 2018]. Aasb.gov.au. 2018.Provisions, Contingent Liabilities And Contingent Assets. [online] Available at:<http://www.aasb.gov.au/admin/file/content105/c9/AASB137_07-04_COMPjun14_04- 14.pdf> [Accessed 11 August 2018].
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13CONTEMPORARY ISSUES IN ACCOUNTING Aasb.gov.au.2018.Revenue.[online]Availableat: <http://www.aasb.gov.au/admin/file/content105/c9/AASB118_07-04_COMPoct10_01-11.pdf> [Accessed 11 August 2018]. Barth, M.E., 2013. Measurement in financial reporting: The need for concepts.Accounting Horizons,28(2), pp.331-352. Henderson, S., Peirson, G., Herbohn, K. and Howieson, B., 2015.Issues in financial accounting. Pearson Higher Education AU. Kang, H. and Gray, S.J., 2013. Segment reporting practices in Australia: Has IFRS 8 made a difference?.Australian Accounting Review,23(3), pp.232-243. Mars-metcdn-com.global.ssl.fastly.net.2018.2018AnnualReport.[online]Availableat: <https://mars-metcdn-com.global.ssl.fastly.net/content/uploads/sites/101/2018/07/24145704/ Metcash-Annual-Report-2018.pdf> [Accessed 11 August 2018]. Metcash | Australia’s leading wholesale distribution and marketing company. (2018).About Us - Metcash | Australia’s leading wholesale distribution and marketing company. [online] Available at: https://www.metcash.com/about-us/ [Accessed 11 Aug. 2018].